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I love Paris and Lyon, having lived in both cities. I know the advantages and disadvantages that come with everyday living there. Paris retains an aura of excitement for some, but Lyon certainly has a lot to offer in terms of quality of life for French and expats, on a smaller scale. Lyon remains relatively unknown, though, compared to its big brother Paris.

Which is why I’m glad to see CNN recently publish a profile of the city and its advantages.

You can read the article here, titled “8 ways Lyon outshines Paris”. Be sure to scroll through the images and captions as well as the article itself. I personally think Notre Dame de Paris is more impressive (at least in history) than the one in Lyon, but besides that I agree that there is a lot to discover in Lyon.

INTERPOL, whose General Secretariat is headquartered in the beautiful city of Lyon, France that I know and love so well, was recently featured in a behind-the-scenes look by Richard Quest on CNN International.

You can read more about this report here on the INTERPOL site with pictures from the filming. Richard Quest profiles the organization, its history, future and interviews figures such as Secretary General Ronald K. Noble.

The video can be watched on the CNN International site. It is a series, so I’ve put the several links below:

As you have probably seen on the news, snow and cold weather has hit large parts of Europe, including a good portion of France. Although Paris has been spared most of the snow, it is still quite cold here, in the low 20’s at night (-7 Celsius), more like an average Chicago winter day. But in other parts of France, my friends in Grenoble, Lyon, Annecy, Eastern France all report anywhere between 8 and 16 inches of snow, so it’s quite a significant snowfall. England and Germany have been hit hard, as well as Poland, Italy and several other countries.

CNN also covers the storm in Europe, and flights at airports like London Gatwick, Frankfurt and Munich have been significantly disrupted with cancellations and major delays (NB their 3rd picture is Lyon’s Place Bellecour). BBC writes that flights have been severely disrupted as well in Brussels, Vienna, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, Geneva, Berlin, London Heathrow and Prague. Over 3,000 people in high-speed German trains had to spend the night in the train as they were blocked by weather. They too have pictures of the storm in Europe (once again with 4th picture in Lyon).

Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden threatened France recently with repercussions for alleged offenses against Islam (fighting in Afghanistan and banning the Muslim burqa in France, etc.). French intelligence services are taking this threat seriously and are working with various western intelligence agencies to counter the threat.

Meanwhile French resources can be found here, and at Figaro. Francois Bayrou, a center politician from the MODEM party, has asked that President Sarkozy inform French political leaders about the exact nature of the threat.

This follows threats in Europe including against France that were highlighted recently.

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